Today the Jag let itself down by failing to start. The positive battery terminal which was hidden under a huge layer of grease/copper grease had basically corroded away to not very much and the failed to allow enough juice through to start the engine. Once the terminal was cleaned up a little and whacked on with a hammer then it could start but the terminal is toast.

I can change the terminal no problem but there seems to be a dirty great fuse in line on that cable. It is a Jaguar part but the rescue guy from Land Rover/Jaguar said it was non standard although I'm not sure he was qualified to say so it being an older vehicle and him being a younger man.

Can I just leave it off which will probably make fitting the replacement terminal simpler?

Many thanks

Mike

 

That is a tough question. They are 250 amp fuses according to the wiring diagram. If they were to blow I suspect you would have left the vehicle some time before that due to smoke!!
They do protect the main fuse boxes them selves from full battery current if something went wrong, like a severed cable in a crash.

tBH i would prefer to have them, but wouldnt lose any sleep if I took them out as I think it is a real belts and braces approach.

Steve

 

I agree.

The protection offered would probably never be called for, BUT, if something happened and the CAT got BBQ'd, the insurance mongrels would go over it with a FINE TOOTH comb and look for any loophole to get out of paying, and that would be one huge loophole without those in place.

Just my opinion from the colonies.

 

Thanks guys. The car is only worth £800-£1,000 so if there is any claim the insurers will write it off and I can't see the lack of fuse affecting a third party claim.

That said I think I'll try to keep it.

Mike

 

Hi Mike,

its not really about your value, you could be in an accident where someone was really badly injured and then the insurance crooks look for avoidance methods. TBH I hadnt thought of that angle, so keep them just in case. Good luck
Steve

 

I had a client who was an insurance vehicle assessor and as I had possibly fitted a larger intercooler and adjusted the fuel pump for the diesel engine in my Discovery I asked him what his guys would do in case of accident. He said check the basics - tyres, brakes etc. He said how the hell would his guys know if the intercooler was larger or not and there was no way they'd look at the pump. I'd suspect it would be the same with a missing fuse that a Jaguar trained guy said was non standard.

I took some comfort from this.

All that said I'm keeping the fuse. I shall visit my local scrap yard and see what he has. What I really need is what seems to be a somewhat special battery terminal. Otherwise I'll just use a suitably large (and boy is it large) cable.

Mike

 

Job done for 10 quid in parts made up by a local company. There are in fact 2 250 amp fuses in there. The cable guys and I agreed that really 300 amp cable should be fine.